Zadie Smith, the cherished English novelist, essayist, short-story writer, and contributor to this magazine, is the inaugural guest at the Newark Public Library’s Philip Roth Lecture series. Since writing her landmark début, “White Teeth,” in 2000, and joining the English department at New York University a decade later, Smith has been an inimitable voice in literature and, occasionally, in the realm of nonfiction. She appears ahead of the November release of her fifth novel, “Swing Time,” for this new annual series, focussed on topics in American literature and history.